When Steve McQueen ordered a brand-new Ferrari in 1967, Maranello probably assumed the King of Cool would simply smile and drive off into the sunset. Instead, the Hollywood star took one look at his pristine Italian supercar, decided the factory shade was completely wrong, and immediately set off a chain of very expensive modifications.
Today, that exact car, chassis 10453, a legendary 275 GTB/4 NART Spider, is heading to auction with Christie’s carrying an eye-watering estimate between $15 million and $20 million.
The saga began when McQueen bought the car through Chic Vandagriff’s Hollywood Sport Cars for roughly $15,000, having fallen for the 275 GTS at Riverside the previous year. According to Ferrari historian Marcel Massini, it resulted the sixth of just ten NART Spiders ever built by Scaglietti at the request of American importer Luigi Chinetti. Delivered in September 1967 in Blu Sera over black Connolly leather, a specification shared with only one other car, it rolled on Borrani wire wheels and Michelin rubber.
However, McQueen wasn’t in town when it landed in Los Angeles. His friend R. Lee Brown picked it up, only for McQueen to declare upon his return: “It needs to be repainted. It’s not my kind of blue”. Naturally, out went Maranello’s original paint, replaced by a darker metallic shade more fitting for an antihero.
McQueen stripped the bumpers, installed an external quick-release fuel cap, added a rally mirror, hidden fender antenna, and had legend Tony Nancy re-stitch the seats to make it look “clean.”
To add insult to injury, the car was promptly rear-ended on the Pacific Coast Highway shortly after delivery. Hollywood customizer Hershel Junior Conway at House of Color handled the repairs, giving the Ferrari its distinctive flip-tail and flared fenders that persist to this day. By 1971, the car belonged to collector J. David Kopf, with virtually no record of how much McQueen actually drove it.
Ultimately, extreme rarity dictates the fortune. Only ten NART Spiders result produced, the first two in aluminum and the remaining eight converted from steel berlinettas. Set to star at the Live Auction during Retromobile New York on November 20-21, 2026, bidding could easily approach the record-shattering $27.5 million (€24.6 million) set by another NART Spider in 2013. It turns out that having the audacity to reject Maranello’s color choice might just be the most profitable cosmetic mistake in automotive history.